Linkbar

Thursday, July 1, 2010

It probably happens to everyone. When you move, there are inevitably things that get put in somewhat random spots because the movers (aka friends and family) are just not sure where they ought to go.

After having lived in your still-being-unpacked-house for about a month, all of a sudden you have that "a-ha" moment. You know the one. The one that says, "THIS doesn't go here!" or "So THAT'S where that was!" There are boxes that you get so used to seeing stacked in a certain spot that you don't even really see them as things that could and SHOULD be moved anymore. Until the "a-ha!" your stuff is kinda stuck, and probably (depending on where those boxes are piled) so are you.

I was having a lot of those "a-ha" moments yesterday. I blitzed a couple boxes of bathroom stuff that had been residing in our kitchen and finally took the time to organize our new medicine cabinet. While the kitchen is not completely outfitted yet to get it all completely in order (some shelves need to be moved around and some cabinet drawers need to be installed which I need Mr. Skooks help to finish), I still decided to try to boogie a couple boxes that had been unceremoniously stashed on top of our fridge.

I have to keep reminding myself, "Just because the boxes are out of the way, it doesn't mean that they GO there."

So I ventured to the top of the fridge and pulled down the boxes to see if, in fact, I could find a place for the items they held . . . you know, NOW.

Label on the box: FRAGILE CHILDREN'S ART PROJECTS

My lovely and wonderful sister packed up a good amount of my kitchen for me pre-move, so I was not completely sure what this meant.

What I discovered: 3 salt dough handprint plaques that I had made with the kids at the beginning of May and 2 ikea ice cube trays filled with broken crayons that were waiting to be melted down into fun shapes.

A-HA! So THAT'S where those went!

I remember when we did those handprints. I had seen a little instructable over at Fun with Mama and we had worked them up right away. Per Nadia's suggestion we let them air-dry because supposedly then they were not supposed to crack.

We did not find this to be the case.

For one thing, they never fully dried. At least, not while we lived at our old house. They APPEARED to be dry, but I remember flipping them over and seeing that tbe back was still not really done. So I flipped them again with the non-done side up and when they APPEARED dry again I picked them back up. We're talking a week of drying time on each side. Problem was, when I picked them up the second time, the first side (which had previously seemed completely dry) was now NOT DRY anymore. Huh?! The whole thing was counfounding, but I didn't want them to crack so I did not bake them.

Makes no sense because they sat around all month in a state of semi-dry and we couldn't really do anything with them.

Perhaps there was something magical about the move, because when I located the box of Fragile Children's Art Projects those little buggers were completely dry and solid as a rock! Apparently, however, the drying process made LM's hand crack.

Oh well. You win some you lose some.

I decided to hang them in the kitchen on the side of the cabinet that I see whenever I come through the back door. The salt dough kinda blended in with my cabinet though, so this morning I pulled out some leftovers from our kitchen-painting endeavor and painted them up. Little Miss busied herself with some Do-A-Dot art which I found in one of the other boxes on top of the fridge (thank you Bisabuela!)

Very simple, and yes, very um . . . coordinate-y with my kitchen. But I'm fine with that.

After all, the paint was free. ;)

********************************************************* EDITED TO ADD: Recently I came across this tutorial at The Pumpkin Patch that may help you come away with something a touch more polished and less crack-y. Worth taking a look at I would say if you are interested in tackling this project.

5
Comments:

Unpacked boxes! I hate them. They're everywhere...expecially the garage. We have a few in our bedroom waiting to be unpacked and sorted. Need to go thru my clothes. We just haven't had a free weekend to work on the garage together and I don't want to do it myself. We've been here over a month now. :(

LM - Girl, I feel your pain. It is hard to get all this stuff unpacked and sorted out and put away. In our case, we're in need of storage solutions for certain rooms (for instance, we had a closet organizing system built in to our last closet in the master bedroom and in our new closet we have one bar and that's it.) All in time. I just wish we could get it all done faster! Argh . . .

LOL, YES! There was a long chunk of time wherein I didn't get around to melting them because I thought that Nate had thrown out my ice cube tray because it was "ruined" from the last crayon experiment. Once we started packing things up it was located and the crayons were shoved in the little spots, but it was just never put in the oven. And now we have a broken oven.

hey lol your post made me laugh hehehmmm the instructions i used said to air dry or bake... it also said air drying is better but i didnt do that...i baked them and they still look gorgeous till today... maybe try baking (if you choose to ever repeat it...)oh and mine didnt crack at allmaybe i should put a disclaimer on my post that slow drying.air drying takes forever and is linked to cracking ;)